Dutch Queen Beatrix on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Wim Kok's collapsed coalition to form a caretaker government until a new cabinet is formed after general elections on May 15.
"Given the short time-span until the elections, she requested the ministers and junior ministers keep doing all that they deem necessary in the interest of the Dutch state," the queen's office said in a brief statement.
A caretaker cabinet is expected to handle day-to-day administrative business before a new government takes over in the wake of next month's election.
Earlier Tuesday, the Dutch cabinet resigned aftera crisis meeting Tuesday over an official report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, in which thousands of Muslims were killed, diplomatic resources in Brussels confirmed.
The report, published last week after five years of investigation, blamed the Dutch government and senior military officials as well as the United Nations for failing to prevent thetragedy.
Prime Minister Wim Kok's coalition government met for crisis talks on Tuesday morning before deciding to resign en masse. Environment minister Jan Pronk and defense minister Frank de Gravehad threatened to quit after the report's release.
The Srebrenica report said the Dutch government had sent its peacekeepers on a "mission impossible" to protect Srebrenica. Some7,500 Muslim men and boys were reportedly killed by Bosnian Serb forces who overran the eastern Bosnian enclave two years after theU.N. declared it a safe haven.
General elections are already planned for May in the Netherlands. Kok said last year he would not seek reelection.
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2002)
